CP98, the annual conference on constraint programming, is organizing
a contest for constraint-based systems, or algorithms, or programs,
to tackle telecommunication applications. Telecom Italia, the company
handling Italian telecommunications, will support the contest by
providing the award for the winner of the contest, which will be a
cellular phone. Moreover, Telecom Italia is also supporting the conference.

The aim of this contest is to stimulate the use of constraints
to develop useful applications in the field of telecommunications.
The applications we have in mind involve not only telephone
communications, but also data communications, picture broadcasting,
and Internet.

The submission, in the form of short application descriptions,
will be judged according to several criteria, among which are the
following: significance, originality, cost-effectiveness, usefulness,
quality (commercial or just prototype).

The committee which will judge the submissions and select the
winner will include the following people:
-- Jean-Francois Puget (ILOG), CP98 program co-chair;
-- Michael Maher (Griffith University), CP98 program co-chair;
-- Remo Pareschi (Telecom Italia), Telecom Italia research director.

The winner will receive the following:
-- the opportunity to present his/her work at the conference during
the main program;
-- five pages in the conference proceedings to publish a short
description of his/her application;
-- a cellular phone.
However, the judges reserve the right to not award the prize.

To participate to the CP98 Telecom application contest, send
a five-page (LNCS format) description of your application,
in postscript format, by e-mail (with subject: CP98 Telecom
contest) to cp98@di.unipi.it, by August 30, 1998. The winner
will be notified by September 15, 1998.

Additional updated information about this contest can be
found at the CP98 web site.